The Secret to Successful Work-Life Programmes

Business Case

Singapore’s workforce has evolved significantly over the years. One important change has been the emergence of work-life harmony as a key component of business strategy.

Progressive employers recognise that individuals who are empowered to effectively manage their career and personal lives are more engaged at work. For these forward-thinking companies, the challenge is to create programmes and policies that address the work-life issues faced by a diverse workforce.

Featured Work-Life Programme

OCBC adopts an employee-driven approach to its work-life initiatives. It uses employee feedback to create targeted and successful programmes.

These include: 

• Employee Resource Groups, which provides group support for specific groups of employees, such as parents of teenage children.
• Life Refresh@OCBC, which provides employees aged 50 and above with resources and training in four key areas: digital and fintech learning, financial planning, career planning and health and fitness.
• OCBC Flex Plan, which gives employees autonomy in selecting and using their flex-dollars to pay for their health and wellness programmes, which may include gym memberships, vacation expenses, medical and optical expenses and IT gadgets.
• PSLE Leave Scheme, where employees who have a child sitting for the national exams can carry forward up to three weeks of annual leave from the previous year, enabling them to spend more time with their child.
• Xplore programme, where employees are given the opportunity to cross-train in another division while covering the duties of an employee who is on long leave.

Implementation

OCBC credits its success to two key factors: strong leadership commitment and insightful employee feedback.

“With leadership buy-in, refinements to work-life strategies are carried out in a timely manner, as it is seen as an investment in employee well-being.”

Strong Leadership Commitment

Leadership support is needed to ensure the success and sustainability of work-life programmes. OCBC’s management has a clear understanding of how work-life strategies can support employees, bolster work performance and meet business goals. With leadership buy-in, refinements to work-life strategies are carried out in a timely manner, as it is seen as an investment in employee well-being. Support from the top also empowers the HR team to be innovative when developing new work-life initiatives.

Insightful Employee Feedback

OCBC’s leadership recognises that its large and diverse workforce has varied work-life needs. This is why it adopts an employee-driven approach to work-life initiatives.

Since 2003, OCBC has conducted annual Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) as the primary method of gathering employee feedback. Once the results have been analysed by HR, they are presented to the CEO and the Board. This enables OCBC’s leadership to provide input and support recommendations for action. Division Heads also receive findings for their specific teams. Within each division, a task force is set up to develop action plans for each unit’s specific concerns.

Importantly, ESS results are reviewed by HR each subsequent year. This helps to determine if past employee engagement challenges have been resolved, and if further steps are required. Through this approach, the ESS has evolved into a dynamic and useful tool for developing action plans, rather than a reporting tool.

Outcomes

OCBC’s efforts to build a sustainable and relevant work-life strategy has been met with positive response from employees. The recognition and respect accorded to the workforce has been positively acknowledged by employees who describe the organisation as a ‘caring’ employer. 

Surveys also show that the work-life satisfaction of staff has risen from 60% in 2010 to 72% on 2015 – a significant improvement from past years. OCBC has proven to be a work-life savvy organisation that purposefully nurtures its workforce to achieve personal wellbeing while meeting business goals.

This case study was first published in 2017, and has been adapted from TAFEP's Work-Life Resource Portal.